war ball

My fifth grade teacher used to play this game with us in P.E.. It is sort of like dodgeball, only more fun.

Set Up:
The game is played out on a squarish/rectangular court. Sidewalk Chalk is advisable for setting up boundaries if no ready-made courts are present. Get a group of people and divide yourselves up into two teams (in our class it was always girls against boys, hmm..) Once you've decided where you want your court to be, designate a dividing line down the middle. Each team stays on their side of the line. The area behind each team's side of the court is where the "Jails"/"Prisons" are. Set one or more rubber balls on the dividing line between the two teams.

How to Play:
At the signal (any signal, make one up) people on both teams run forward to grab the balls, and throw them at people on the opposite team. For a hit to count, the ball can't have bounced on the ground more than one time. Once you're hit, you're out and you must go to the jail that is behind your opposing team. If you catch the ball however, the person who threw it at you must go to jail. Players are not allowed to leave their side of the court, or else they go to jail too. The last team left with members free of incarceration is the winner.

Jail:
Fret not! You still have (minimal) power even while in captivity. If any of the flying balls get past your rival team and make it into your jail space, you can pick them up and chuck them at your oppressors. If you hit any of them, you are free once more.

The rules are, of course, bendable according to taste. Sometimes there are no restrictions about the # of bounces allowed. Sometimes people play without jails at all, instead simply disqualifying players who get hit. Whatever floats your boat..

But note: The more balls you play with; the harder and crazier it is. And the more challenging; the more fun. I recommend a ratio of at least 1:5 balls to people.

When I was in junior high, we used to play two different games called "war ball". One was essentially the same as the one ifeeldizzy described above (and I see no reason to incorporate it into this writeup unless one of the editors or gods is planning on killing it). The other was played like this:

Setup

As in the other version, this game is played on a squarish or rectangular field. We used physical boundaries, but you could use tape or chalk too. The game is played with three to six half-inflated kickballs (or any other ball of similar size; e.g. a soccer ball). The balls should be inflated enough to roll, but flat enough that you can grip part of it in your fist.

Four people are selected out of the group to be "terminators". Two go to the corners of one side of the court, the other two go to the side opposite them. All the balls are put on the sides with the terminators Everyone else is in the middle.

Playing the Game

Play is fairly simple. The terminators throw the balls at their 'targets', and the latter do their best to avoid them. There are pretty much no rules as to how to do this, as long as it doesn't involve injuring one of the other targets. Once a ball hits the ground, it is neutral and doesn't affect the game until thrown again. There are several ways a target gets out of the middle:

• He/she gets hit by a ball thrown by a terminator. They are then permanently out of the game until the round is over.
• He/she hits a terminator with a ball. That terminator is then out of the game, and he/she takes their place.
• He/she catches a ball thrown by a terminator. They exchange places.
• He/she throws a ball at a terminator, but the terminator catches it. The target is then out of the game.

Winner: The winner is the last target in the middle. Alternately, there is no winner; and the game is played until the last target is eliminated.